My initial concept for the water lion is for solid waves here in Europe, with the first two waves coming to mind: Hossegor and Mundaka. Those waves inspired this board´s design.

Basically the whole concept is to fill the gap between your performance short board and your step up by adding performance to your step up. Many riders have the GERR as a go to short board and the CARRERA as the recommended step up board. Between those two is the WATER LION, designed to start working well in 3 foot (head high) proper hollow waves and can definitely push it to 6-8 foot surf (double to more than double over head) no problem.

The outline has same concept as the CARRERA with the fuller front end for paddling, which is what you need to get out and into bigger surf. Although as the tail is pulled in to handle larger surf it ends in a baby squash tail. This tail was influenced from one of my shaping heroes, Pat Rawson. I have always been attracted by the baby squash tail that he used to do in the 80s and 90s, so this is a little homage to him. What the baby squash tail does opposed to the round pin is it brings two pivot points to the tip of the tail to allow the board to go rail to rail quicker.

This board will ride the barrel well, then go on the shoulder to hit the lip and do round houses. It is going to be a lot easier to turn than your typical step up would be while maintaining the characteristics to pull into the barrel well and help you make the drop.

Pukas Water Lion 6’0″ put to test by Adur Letamendia in Hossegor.

Who is CxCx?

Surfing all styles of boards, back country snowboarding, vintage motorcycles and cars, fishing, golf, and seeing live music is what best defines Chris Christenson.

Shaping highlights: Working for and shaping side by side with Dick Brewer and Skip Frye. Greg Long winning the Eddie and Waterman of the Year, lots of XXL winners awarded on his boards, Tribute to the Masters contestant, 2 second place finishes in Reef Board Build Offs’… but probably the most important the recognition and credit he gets from the best surfboard builders and the orders he gets from the best surfers in the world.

Extract of an interview with Chris Christenson for Huck’s Magazine’s 10th anniversary

“I used to do surf contests back then, so I competed on my own boards. Then my friends started using them. And then their friends. By my sophomore year in university, I had a full-on business going”, says Chris.

Nearly 25 years later, Chris has shaped over 22.000 surfboards from his base in San Diego, customizing styles for elite figures such as Greg Long and Brad Gerlach. “Building boards for international competition can be as detail-orientated as making parachutes for a living”, he says. There is no marging for error.

“You are kind of taking someone’s life into your hands. But I enjoy that par of it. I always liken it to a high-level athlete where you’ve got to perform in the last few seconds of a game. Whereas others might be nervous and make mistakes, I’m the one saying, “gimme the ball”. That’s a good place to be”.

The Californian doesn’t believe in taking shortcuts in quality to save money. Instead he keeps his prices fixed, maintains the same diehard staff and let’s the work speak for itself. “To be a successful board builder with a career that’s going to last means working your ass off. I don’t think people realize what goes into it”.

“You are kind of taking someone’s life into your hands. But I enjoy that par of it. I always liken it to a high-level athlete where you’ve got to perform in the last few seconds of a game. Whereas others might be nervous and make mistakes, I’m the one saying, “gimme the ball”. That’s a good place to be”.

“Independence means everything to me”, says Chris. “Sometimes when I want to get in creative mode, I’ll purposely shut myself off to the surfing world. No magazines, no movies, no surf shops, I just try not to give a shit what anyone else is doing so I won’t be influenced by it”.

“Everyone needs passion in their life – everyone needs something,” he says. “But I feel like no matter what art, sport or industry you’re into, it’s healthy to just step out of it and get inspired by other things. It only seems to open more doors whn you go back”.

What is Pukas.

“Pukas Surf is a family driven company based in the Basque Country and has built a reputation for making quality high-performance surfboards and custom bikinis. Mixing a global view and a local knowledge, the group has been able to feed their surf addiction since they first handshaped a surfboard in 1973.

Along the way came the surf shops, the surf contests, the friends and the parties, the surf Factory, the profesional Pukas surfers, the good and the bad, the surf schools and the stokedness; Surfing at its finest. Pukas is surf and always will be.”